


The Voices of the Deep

by GrayPacificSkies



Category: Subnautica (Video Game), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Friendships, Gen, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Ignore everything after season 2, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Mentions of Voltron Paladins - Freeform, My First AO3 Post, My First Work in This Fandom, Near Death Experiences, No Romance, Post-Season 2, The ocean is beautiful and terrifying, They will show up eventually, Wilderness Survival, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24503581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrayPacificSkies/pseuds/GrayPacificSkies
Summary: Lance awakens after the Galran ship he had been imprisoned on crash lands on a planet that is nothing but ocean. He is the only survivor save for a lone Galran soldier/engineer. With no way to contact his team, he will have to work together with a former enemy-now-turned-survivor-buddy if he is to have any hope of holding out for a rescue. Especially with the unknown creatures and beasts that lurk within the depths around them.
Relationships: Lance (Voltron) & Original Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	The Voices of the Deep

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender or Subnautica. They belong to Dreamworks and Unknown Worlds Entertainment respectively. This is a fanwork written for fun/practice and not profit.

# Voices of the Deep

### Chapter 1

“Nnhg…” Lance groaned in pain as his eyes cracked open. His vision blurred in and out of focus before focusing and he pushed himself to his knees, hand flying up to cradle his head where a dull ache was throbbing.

“What…? What happened?” he mumbled to himself. He tried to recall the events leading up to his current predicament. There was the mission, as usual, then someone had grabbed him and he blacked out, the imprisonment, and then the explosion…

The explosion…

Lance finally lifted his head to scan his surroundings. Everything was at an angle judging by how the doorway was not how it was supposed to be. He could see live wires dangling out, sparking every now and then. The eerie glow of the standard fluorescent purple that the Galra liked so much was either dimmed, flickering, or completely out. The door to what was once his cell was now open, having malfunctioned if he had to hazard a guess as to why it was easy to pry it open when he made his way over to it.

“Ok. One, two… three!”

Lance heaved himself through the opening and landed on the ground behind it with a loud, “Ooph!”

Now that he was out in the hallway everything looked a lot worse. Not only that, but he could also see that water was flooding the ship. So the explosion had meant a crash landing had occurred? Or was the explosion what caused the crash? Lance didn’t know. But now wasn’t the time to ponder what had happened, not in this place. A loud creak made him flinch along with the rumble that ran through the Galra ship. So he started to climb. Thankfully, when the Galra had imprisoned him they hadn’t taken his armor, only his helmet and bayard, so he had some protection at least. But it didn’t change the fact he still had to find them and get into contact with his team. So here he was, walking on what once was a wall-now-a-floor, looking for his helmet and bayard. Room after room, he found nothing but debris and the occasional destroyed droid (the darkness made it difficult to determine what they were at first and Lance had felt his mouth dry at what he thought were dead bodies). After searching and searching, he found his helmet and bayard by some stroke of luck.

“Yes!” He grinned in triumph and shifted the loose plating off of his helmet and putting it back on his head. Having retrieved his helmet he went for his bayard when another rumble through the ship nearly threw him off balance. He swayed and put a hand out to catch himself only to then jerk at a loud crash followed by a muffled scream. Someone was still alive. Once the tremors subsided he moved again to find who it was that screamed.

“Hello?! Hey, can you hear me?!”

“Nngh…”

The voice was coming from the room on his left. On the inside (it looked like a medical/tech room of some sort) it was completely trashed with counters, strange tools, and more wires thrown or dangling about. And there, pinned beneath an iron beam, was a Galra soldier. Lance paused, instinctively tightening his grip on his bayard but not lifting it. The Galra saw him through pain-filled, pupil-less eyes, and he stiffened, “P-paladin…”

They held one another’s gazes and it felt like an eternity. The Galra closed his eyes, presumably from the pain, and went very still. Not from death, but it was the kind of stillness that came from one who was anticipating a painful sensation. Another tremor accompanied by something collapsing snapped Lance out of his reverie and he had to crouch down to keep his center of balance. The Galra grunted when the beam pinning him moved, followed by a strangled yelp and reflexive struggling.

That settled it then. 

Lance’s feet moved and he was in front of the Galra, trying to lift the beam enough so he could get out.

“You…? Why--”

“Not the time-ooph! Can you crawl out now? I can’t move it much further than this.” This being only an inch. The Galra blinked once before attempting to shimmy free once more. It took a few tries but he was able to wiggle free and pulled himself away from the beam just as Lance lost his grip. A grunt of exertion left him and the force made his teeth rattle. Leaning against the beam, he panted heavily, trying to regain his breath. Remembering the Galra who was now free he turned. The Galra was eyeing him wearily, now standing in the doorway with an arm cradling his left side. Not only that, but his left leg was also bent as he stood, clearly favoring it. In his free hand was some kind of case. Whether it was housing a weapon or not he could not tell.

Neither one moved for a long while, not until another tremor rocked the ship, followed by a muffled exploding sound. The Galra’s head jerked to the other end of the hallway that Lance had come from and then he started limping away.

“Nope, nope, nope,” Lance started to mutter to himself and scrambled to follow the Galra. Somewhere there was a metal screeching noise and that made him pick up the pace.  
He needed to get out of here. Now. Potentially hostile Galra on the loose be damned. He followed the Galra, who caught notice of him with narrowed eyes and attempted to speed up as much as his injuries would allow. Both of them had to stop as what was definitely an explosion ripped through the ship.

“Must be close to one of the drive cores… Urgh… And the Paladin following me...” Lance heard the rough voice of the Galra taper off into what he could only describe as a series of harsh, growl-like consonants. Lance wasn’t the most knowledgeable about engineering (he had a basic understanding, everyone had to take Engineering 101 at the Garrison), but he could tell by the tone of voice that a drive core exploding was definitely not a good thing. The Galra sharply turned a corner and Lance broke into a run. Rounding the corner himself he had to instinctively raise an arm at the sudden onslaught of extremely bright light. He could also hear the sound of water moving. Water moving in a very, very familiar way that made a lump form in his throat. Longing thrummed through him and when he lowered his arm he couldn’t help the breathless gasp that left him.

Blue stretched out far into the distance, glittering beneath the rays of what he knew to be an alien sun. But it was just so similar and it made his heart ache for--

“Raaaghhh!” A battle cry tore through his reverie and he flinched away from the square object being swung at him. It clipped him in the shoulder, making him shriek in surprise. He stumbled and nearly lost his footing, bringing his bayard up to transform it into the familiar rifle and pulled the trigger. The injured Galra dodged the blast and then bit out another one of those harsh growling noises in what he could only now assume were Galran expletives. The Galra’s chest heaved and he knelt down on his good leg, his injuries having finally caught up to him by the looks of it. Lance kept the scope of his rifle trained on the Galra but he was no longer moving, save for his breathing. He couldn’t help it; everything about this was really odd. Usually, the Galra were all “Victory or death” and all that jazz. But the Galra had just given up so easily.

“... What are you waiting for?” The Galra’s voice was resigned. Lance could only blink like he wasn’t comprehending, which he wasn’t, and the Galra lifted his head. A breeze blew through, disturbing the Galra’s fur and the lone, small braid that dangled on the right side of his face.

“You have me at your mercy, Paladin,” the Galra continued, “I attacked you, even after you helped me. So why won't you kill me?”

“I…” He didn’t know how to answer that. The next thing he knew, the floor was falling out beneath him and the Galra. They fell with the metal plating into the water below. Lance’s helmet automatically sealed itself and his suit began to circulate oxygen ensuring he wouldn’t drown. The Galra wasn’t faring as well as he was, especially not with his injuries. And he… he couldn’t watch that.

Drowning is one of the worst ways to go.

His jetpack flared to life and propelled him through the water towards the Galra and grabbed him. He then used a nearby broken ship wall to kick off of and they began to propel away from the wreckage. Once they were out of the danger zone (at least he hoped so), he surfaced. The Galra coughed and spluttered, still very much alive but now completely out of it. Probably due to the pain. The water provided buoyancy for Lance to keep the Galra above water--certainly a lot easier than trying to lift that beam--but it was still difficult. Looking around he could see nothing but ocean, with what he could only presume was the only bit of land being overtaken by the ruined ship. At least at first. He spotted what appeared to be a sandbar in the distance and headed straight for it. His heart lifted in relief and joy when he saw that it indeed was and when he got close enough, he righted himself to stand up. At least as much as he was allowed with trying to drag a large body onto land with him. Once he had pulled them both out far enough they wouldn’t be pulled away by the waves lapping against the sand Lance finally collapsed. He breathed in and out, closed his eyes, and rolled over onto his back to face the sky. He laid there for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the ocean, the crumbling ship in the distance, and the wheezing breath of his fellow survivor. Cracking his eyes open, he slowly sat up and looked over at the Galra. He couldn’t see the extent of his injuries but from a cursory glance, he looked rather terrible.

Then he saw it. The object the Galra had been carrying and used to attack him. Now that he had a better, close up look at it it looked like a suitcase; a suitcase with no notable latches or visible way to open it. He couldn’t help but lean over, squinting his eyes a bit. What could it be for? Besides a makeshift weapon, the Galra had attempted to bludgeon him with. The Galra twitched and he pulled back. Golden eyes cracked open and blinked slowly to refocus themselves. They slowly slid over to look at him, “... You didn’t kill me…”

Lance didn’t respond. The Galra closed his eyes, breathed deep, and then released it in a long sigh like he couldn’t believe Lance’s actions. Which he honestly couldn’t blame him for. He gingerly sat back up, wincing again from his injuries and pulled up the suitcase he had kept a hold of. He placed his hand on it and it whirred to life to which he once more set it on his side and shifted away from it. Lance watched as it unfolded and expanded, refiguring itself into what looked like a terminal with ridges that looked like compartments. The Galra pulled on one of the ridges that opened up and he pulled out a kit that, once popped open, revealed bandages and medicine Lance couldn’t read. He proceeded to patch himself up, waving off Lance’s hesitant offers to help. Lance sat back unsure of what to do when the sound of thunder reached his ears and he turned to look. In what was the final explosion the ship went up in flames, purple sparks streaking outward with the force. A large wave splashed against them and Lance spluttered, “Gah! Ack!”

He spat out the mouthful of saltwater he had gotten. Beside him, his fellow survivor had held on to the metal terminal and used it to prop himself back onto his feet.

“Great. Just great,” he groused. The Galra tapped some things on the terminal and he focused on something that Lance couldn’t see. When he did lean out enough to catch a glimpse it was all in Galran symbols that he could not read. If Pidge were here she would’ve used her handy-dandy program to translate it. That much he was certain of.

“Erm… so…” Lance drawled. The Galra turned to look at him and Lance felt a certain kind of awkwardness overtake him, “Uh… What does that thing do?”

“...”

Silent treatment and unreadable stare. Cool. Not awkward at all, Lance thought sarcastically to himself. Not to mention, what’s the chance that the dude would spill the beans as what his handy-dandy alien tech is and what it would do? 

“... It’s a portable multi-purpose container unit and fabricator.”

“Huh?” Lance looked back up with wide-eyes. The Galra frowned and repeated, “It’s a container unit and fabricator.”

“O-oh… cool. That’s cool..” He really hadn’t been expecting an answer. The other turned back to what he was doing and Lance found that he didn’t know what else to do. Looking out at the ocean he was reminded of the beaches of earth and the pang of longing in his heart made itself known again. How long had it been since they had left earth that fateful day? How was his family doing? What had the Garrison told them? Distantly, he knew he shouldn’t be zoning out but he couldn’t help it. Plus, the Galra hadn’t tried to bean him over the head outside of that one half-hearted attempt back at the ship.

“Paladin. Paladin!”

“Wha-huh?! What?” Lance jumped. The Galra stared at him, unimpressed, but continued on, “I need you to bring me some of the wreckage from the ship. And take this with you.” He handed off an object to Lance which he took. It was the standard purple color that the Galra seemed to favor as a whole and rectangular in shape with a handle.

“What is this for?”

“Use that to scan any life forms you come across. See if they are edible. It will tell you what is safe and what is not. As much as it pains me to admit, I cannot do it myself so I will have to rely on you.”  
Right, because he was injured. Lance took the scanner into his hands and got back up to his feet, “Okay… And this isn’t secretly an assassination weapon?”

He got an unamused look for his question.

“Never mind. So wreckage and scan for food. Got it.”

Lance sealed his helmet back up and dove back into the ocean, leaving the Galra behind on the sand bar. He propelled through the water and now that he didn’t have a time-sensitive task holding him back he finally got to really see the ocean that was around him. There were strange fish that he had never seen before flitting about, there were coral structures and brightly colored seaweed swaying with the currents. He slowed down so he could tread water instead and look about the area. A strange manatee-like creature with a club-like tail swam past him and he couldn’t help but swim in for a closer look. It shook and swayed about when he got close, the glowing green dots on its tail released spores into the water that exploded.

“Whoa!” Lance kicked his legs to get out of the way, “Okay. You like your space. Sorry about that.”

Belatedly he realized he forgot to scan the manatee-thing. He continued on, spotting a fish that was more eye than body and held out the scanner. He pulled the trigger and a light-violet light shot out to run down its body, even as it darted away. The screen glowed and an automated voice began to rattle off things like “unknown species” and “composition safe for consumption.” Another fish that looked like the majority of its body was an inflatable was also deemed safe, then the one with hoop-like ridge fins, a funny-looking one that reminded Lance of a character from an old show from earth’s past, and one that looked like his bayard when it was not in weapon mode. It was actually really fun, and he couldn’t help but laugh a bit when a school swam to him, the small triangular fish darting out of the way to avoid colliding with him. He continued onward until he found his first piece of wreckage laying on the sandy floor and picked it up. There was more around him but he could only carry one more with how big most of them were. So he found one he could carry with the piece he already had and made his way back to the sandbar.

The Galra looked up when Lance came up with the salvage, “That’s all?”

“Uh… yeah? I wouldn’t have been able to carry much more with how big these are.”

He put the salvage down on the sand and stood back up. An incredulous eyebrow was raised at him and Lance couldn’t help but feel irritated. The headshake only heightened that irritation before a clawed hand was held out to him, “The scanner.”

If Lance was a bit forceful when he gave it to him he didn’t say anything. The Galra took it and began to check its contents while waving Lance off to go back to get more salvage.

“Or would you rather not have shelter?” He asked when Lance protested the rather bossy tone he believed the Galra to be using.

He had no argument for that. But he still grumbled as he dove back into the ocean. He had to make multiple trips, which was exhausting, but while he did that the Galra (he really needed to come up with a nickname for the guy. Or learn his name; one of those two) had done some things to rig up a very basic shelter with the salvage Lance had gathered. When it came time for the food Lance once again dove out to catch the fish out in the deeper waters. This time he had help though his fellow survivor had waited for fish to come close enough to shallow waters around the sandbar to grab them with his claws.

The fish that were more eye than body was fast. Lance spent the better part chasing them down before finally catching one with a whoop of victory. The inflatable-looking ones and the funny-looking ones were easier to chase down so he focused on those until he had a good armful of wiggling fish. The sun was setting by the time both of them had finished their respective catches. The Galra had taken the fish and put them on the fabricator to cook the fish. Not only that, the inflatable fish were apparently a natural water filter and were instead turned into freshwater by the fabricator.  


Biting into his meal he noted that the fish tasted strange but not in a bad way. Compared to Coran’s cooking (Lance sent a mental apology to the chipper Altean), it was absolute heaven. He was certain the Hunk could have made these into something spectacular was he here. Thoughts of Hunk inevitably turned to the rest of the team. They had to be looking for him. He knew they were. But the last time he had been separated from the team, Hunk was with him and he had his lion with him. Here he was alone, only had his suit and bayard, and a Galra that had tried to attack him before giving up way too easily. Also, he guessed they were temporary allies? It was all rather sudden and he was honestly surprised at how quickly the Galra had decided to work together with him. Chewing on his Eye Fish, he glanced over at the Galra who had his back turned to him. The sun was long gone, taking the last light of dusk with it and the stars had shown their faces. They were the only light source, aside from the multi-purpose unit’s soft glowing light that was so much different from the harsh lighting within Galra ships.

“Hey,” he called out, “What’s your name?”

“... Why does it matter that you know, Paladin?”

“Well, I can’t keep calling you “that Galra” or “Galra Dude.” Unless you want me to call you “Galra Dude.”

“...”

Lance waited for a beat. Then two. Then he heaved a sigh, “Well, okay then. Galra Dude it--”

“Jaffa.”

“Huh?” He replied. The Galra--Jaffa--turned his head to better face Lance, “My name, Paladin. Since you're so insistent about it.”

And then Jaffa was turning back to his meal and the silence returned. It took Lance a while to realize his mouth was open in surprise and he quickly closed it.

“Ah… Jaffa, got it. I’m Lance.”

“Hm…” Jaffa only hummed in response and said nothing more.

Once they finished eating, Lance had crawled over to the crude shelter that Jaffa had put up, who had even made a wall to make separate spaces. Jaffa himself hadn’t moved from his spot since they had finished their respective meals. He was still sitting there, cross-legged and with his gaze at the distant horizon where a large moon that was bigger than Earth’s shone brightly above.  
He didn’t go into the shelter straight away either. Looking up into the sky he could see all of the stars within the system that this seemingly endless ocean resided under. Any constellations that were there were foreign and unfamiliar and they were clearer here than on Earth and most of the planets they had been to on the Castle of Lions. And sure, he currently lived in that very same castle that flew amongst those stars but actually being on solid ground and watching them go by was a familiar comfort while so far from home.

Lance settled down on the sand, grimacing at the fact that he was going to be waking up with sand on his face and in his hair. Maybe Jaffa’s fabricator would be able to make something he could use as a mat. He would definitely ask in the morning. Provided Jaffa didn’t try to attack him in the middle of the night.

The thought was definitely going to make it difficult to sleep.

Still, he curled up in the area he claimed for himself and closed his eyes. He breathed in and out, his rhythm eventually matching with waves that lapped the shore. The anxiety of what could possibly happen still niggled at the back of his mind but the soothing sound of the ocean was hypnotic. His breathing began to even out and his mind drifted away on those waves that surrounded him. He could almost pretend the ocean around him was the ocean of home and this was Varadero.

Then he was gone. Lulled to sleep by the alien ocean.

**Author's Note:**

> It has been a while since I've worked on or posted a fic but here it is. If you have made it here to end, thank you for taking to time to read this fic. I hope I can make it an entertaining read for you all. As it says in the tags, this fic takes place sometime after season 2 but they did find Shiro so there was no lion-swap or Haggar manufacturing clones.
> 
> I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out but I will work on it when I'm able. I have a lot of plans for this fic. See you all then. :)


End file.
